Dealing with Panic Attacks W/ Capturing Christianity 

Please pray for me. I'm struggling with doubts and anxiety for the past year. It's awful.

I can attest to this: I suffer from OCD, and I became deeply metaphysical skeptical in my early adulthood as a result of extreme curiosity and crippling doubts. A combination of Thomism and seratonin reuptake inhibitors seem to have allowed me to rediscover my faith in my late twenties / early thirties.

I have severe anxiety disorder. I’ve been on meds since I was 17 and I’m 39 now. I’ve had several extreme panic attacks in my life and they are no joke for sure. I see it as a blessing in some ways. Fear can be a motivator or a disabler. It’s our choice in most occasions to choose what we do with that fear.

There's this knot in the pit of the stomach, like an iron fist squeezing your innards, depriving you from air, making your heart race and sweat profusely. The head goes numb and I feel queasy, really queasy, to the point of passing out. That's terrifying, and it's been happening to me lately, since I'm jobless and broke. Prayer helps a lot. Asking Christ for strenght in difficult times is a sure way to go. But when you have one of these while you're in the middle of your Rosary... God, please, don't let me go.

I had my first panic attack when I was only in ninth grade. I was inside the Capitol building in Washington DC at the very top looking over the rail, and I had a panic attack and didn't know what it was. It was so frightening that I thought I was going to die. I started having more panic attacks for the next couple of days and my parents took me to the hospital. They told me they were just panic attacks but that didn't stop me from having them. I remember driving home from DC and the song I Will Remember You by Amy Grant came on the radio, and I wondered if they would play it at my funeral! That's how scary they are! People who haven't had them don't understand. The scariest thing is that you feel like you have no control over what's happening to you. Prayer is what has helped me the most. After my panic attack in the Capitol building, I began to avoid being around tall buildings because I associated panic attacks with them. With time and prayer, I eventually got over that, but then I felt major anxiety when I began to fly. With a lot of prayer and desensitization, because I started flying a lot more, I got over that fear. Now I struggle with fear of open spaces, because I had a panic attack while being in an open space. I always end up avoiding the places I had my panic attacks at. I am still trying to get over this irrational fear. I don't talk about it with many people because they don't understand. It is a fight or flight situation. You either fly away from the situation as quickly as you can to avoid the panic, or you bravely stay and fight it with the help of God. There are also techniques that you can use, like the one mentioned in this video. I have heard tapping your hand in a certain spot helps.

Personal experience... What really helped me was to face my fear. Practically speaking, that means: DO NOT ever run away or fight fear/anxiety - face it! By running away (mentally) or fighting it, I only made things worse (= anxiety circle). But what does that mean, to face fear in a state of anxiety? It means to focus on your fear at first (whatever it is) and then to accept it voluntarily. In other words: you surrender to the very thought that's bothering you, you let it in. Imagine your fear as little blue manikins wandering through your body in and out. You can't make them leave your body by fighting, all this will achieve is making them fight back. Instead, surrender and let them pass. By practicing this approach - whenever (!) you feel anxious - you will realize that you're not totally out of control - because YOUR FEAR CANNOT FORCE YOU TO FIGHT IT! You might feel initial worsening, but after ca. half a minute you will feel relieved. Learining this practice takes time but once you have understood it, you can cope with fear. "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love." (1 John 4:18) "God is love." 1. John 4:16

Personal experience on how I successfully overcame my anxiety: It's a cycle of thought --> emotion (what you feel) --> thought --> emotion (what you feel) .... First you need to differentiate between these two. Because dealing with one is different from dealing with the other. Since it's a circle, you must break one of these, but you can deal with both. Dealing with the thought(s) is more important. The circle (your anxiety) does not disappear instantly. But it becomes weaker every time you manage to break one element of it. 1. Regarding the emotions you might search for breathing techniques or methods to cause physical pain to lessen the feeling. And remember the emotion (= physical, what you actually feel when anxiety manifests itself) is not the same as the thought which triggered the emotion. You cannot fight the emotion itself or run away mentally without making things worse. But what you can do is to face the emotions which means to become aware of your bodily symptoms and accept them voluntarily. Your emotions cannot (!) force you to fight them mentally (= with your thoughts). That’s how the chain between emotion and thought can be cut by refusing to fight the emotion after having had the thought. 2. Regarding the thoughts themselves: Your thoughts can become an inner circle if you start catastrophising. Catastrophising must be interrupted right at the start and must not be thought through till some presumed result is found which falsely promises inner peace. How do you do it? You must not try to not think about it because that does not work. Instead, you think about something else something that distracts you very easily (for instance, in my case that’s the latest football news). And now back to 1.. And remember, the anxiety circle doesn’t disappear instantly, but it becomes weaker every time focus on 1. or 2.. You are in control. Your fear cannot force you to fight it. “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” (1. John 4:18, highly recommend the entire 4th chapter)

I suffered with anxiety for few years. My one was so crippling that I couldn’t leave my home for months. This is where I started praying and asking God to help me. I was lucky to speak to one priest who was psychologist as well, he guided me I started to go to retreats and fast. I had a similar feeling that I will die tath something was wrong with my health. My cross broth me closer to God. And this is where my healing began. Anxiety is a fear of something at least this was with me. My fear was paralysing me. Then one day I had this experience which was a bit of supernatural and in that moment I experienced freedom from fear it self. I felt so close to the Lord, I felt that he was with me so close and even if I was to die for whatever reason, why should I fear when he is with me. At that point I didn’t worry any more if I did die as all i care for is to be with him anyway. Desth wss nit a threat any more This was a moment of my healing. I was free after that. I done similar thing prior to this expiriance a pinch when I felt panic attacks but I wouldn’t recommend that. Looking now 28 years back 😳 as we know peope self harm and that could be their exucuse to self harm, all I recommend is deal with what is cosine your fear and make a peace with God. Trust him that he is in control of your life. I try to always keep my stress level down I listen to my body and examine my thoughts ( are they too negative and unreasonable ) I dismiss them if they are. I can just testify to what worked for me. Prayer ( going with the Lord deep with in my soul and let him be my healer) I recommend meditating on Word of God as his word is so powerful and healing Exercise is another one Fasting is powerful Keep breathing slowly when you find your anxiety going up. At least this worked for me God bless Ana

I've always had a lot of mental health issues, and by the time I was 17 I had developed an extreme amount of anxiety-driven obsessive doubt about everything I took for granted in my life. Becoming informed in apologetics and philosophy was an enormous help to give me stability in reason, not only for my faith but for my outlook on life in general also, especially as it challenged myself to think more logically and change my cognitive behaviors that led to irrational doubts. And of course, growing in my personal relationship with Christ has been just as strengthening. At 26 now, I am more comfortable in my faith and reason than I ever thought I could be. And of course, medication has been tremendously helpful too. For one example of a kind of doubt I used to have: I used to be constantly uncertain about things like, whether a rock would just spontaneously materialize through my head and kill me. I think atheistic philosophies like "Something can come out of nothing" and "Infinitesimal natural chances are more probable than design" result in a lot of absurd possibilities like this that make life unlivable and rationality untenable if you take the time to seriously think about them. Christian philosophy has been the healthiest dose of sanity I've ever received in more ways than one.

I've been having panic attacks quote often for the last year and haven been diagnosed with panic disorder. Thank you for talking about this!

Panic disorder has finally made me agoraphobic. I avoid going on car rides to avoid having panic attacks. Please pray for me. Im worried this is a spiritual attack. They started when I was 5 or 6 with thunderstorms, changed to cars around 19, and now post lockdown Im 30 and housebound completely.

Thank you for sharing! I agree back in the day you wouldn’t speak about anxiety or mental illness. God Bless you both❤️

Fr. Stephen Rosetti Deliverance Prayers are on youtube. It starts with the rosary and then with the prayers.

I know the feeling brother. I suffer from panic disorder and I've been to the hospital 3 times because of it. When he says he thought he was having a heart attack, HE IS NOT EXAGGERATING. Praying and reading scripture is the only thing that seems to help. However it is torchrr sometimes to think you are dying for no reason.

I dealt with the fear of what I was told were panic attacks for 20 years and 15+ emergency room visits... Finally we found out that they wern't panic attacks and was actually SVT; I ended up getting a cardiac ablation recently and havn't had an attack in years... just an FYI

I became a Christian in 1996,I had my first panic attack in 1998,I still wrestle with it but not quite as bad because I know what it is now the first panic attack can feel like your gonna die.

I can attest to the power of Trust in God to help with Anxiety. I used to get anxiety attacks at night for years. But then I had 2 episodes while I was awake and worse yet, while driving. My feet would get a tingly feeling that would spread to both my arms especially my forearms, to the point that my flexor muscles would clamp up, and I would almost be unable to unclasp my grip on the steering wheel. I would get some shortness of breath and my heart would feel like it wanted to jump out of my chest. The first time this happened I stopped on the side of the road, and rested for about 20 minutes and was back to normal. That didn't happen again until about 2 years later and it was so bad that the police checked me out as I stopped on the side of the road and an ambulance was called. They checked me out at the ambulance and said I was fine, that it was just a panic attack. This last one was about a year ago. Since then, I've reconverted back to traditional Catholicism and have been trying to put complete faith in God. That, and the graces from the Sacrament of Reconciliation have helped tremendously to help with my anxiety. The only times I get them now, are when I sleep too little because of work. Melatonin also helps tremendously with that.

Please pray for my struggles with fear, anxiety, and panic attacks. I been praying to our Loving Heavenly Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. It’s my fleshly human side I yield too sometimes but, we are to walk by the Holy Spirit and promises of God In the scriptures by faith. I sometimes let my mind think of many bad situations that “could” happen which is wrong.

I also had no clue I was having a panic attack when I had my first one. I ALSO went to the hospital cause I thought I was gonna die. Ive been so scared ever since of having another one.

That's interesting, the period of my life when I had the most doubts about faith was also when I first seriously experienced social anxiety (new school, much bigger than the previous, didn't know anybody).

I recommend reading Give Up Worry for Lent! by Gary Zimak. It's not a cure, but it can be helpful.

I have battled health anxiety, panic disorder and possibly ocd for the last 12 years of my life. It all started when I got sick with a strep throat infection. I think before that, I’ve had some small phobias especially including ones over rollercoasters, medicine, and biology. It’s tough. Very tough. But God has been with me through the years. Some years are better, others are worse. This is perhaps one of the worse years. I suspect stress plays a huge role in it.

Hmm I don't like the sound of that (punching oneself to interrupt anxious thoughts). One of the reasons people cut themselves (with razor blades- very dangerous!) is because the pain relieves stress- because it jolts them out of their head and into their body. I think punching/pinching yourself is a really bad coping strategy for dealing with anxiety, because it can escalate from minor to major pain being needed for it to work. There are much more healthy coping strategies available.

...an interesting book on anxiety: The Concept of Anxiety : A Simple Psychologically Orienting Deliberation on the Dogmatic Issue of Hereditary Sin By Søren Kierkegaard

'Panic attacks are uncomfortable but not dangerous' Dr Harry Barry. Explore this truth and you'll never get one again. The Truth really does set us free.

Have you tried ERP? That sounds a lot like Health OCD and it’s treated differently than Generalized Anxiety Disorder

I've always been a very skeptical person. Skepticism is healthy, but I think the kind of obsessive doubt he's talking about is not a skepticism for the sake of being prudent and scientific and reaching the truth more carefully, it's rather a skepticism out of excessive FEAR, fear that I might become wrong or deceived and then be unable to work my way out of my error. I can relate to a lot of this and I've had panic attacks.

Needed.

I agree search make it worse. Search engine like gives the worst scenario about everything, even sin.